Luna County area

Population and density of Luna County

The Census Bureau estimates that 25,407 people lived in Luna County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,655 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #18 of 33 in New Mexico. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 25,419, the population has declined by 12 (−0%), compared with +0.4% for New Mexico as a whole.

With 2,965.2 square miles of land, that is 8.6 people per square mile (3.3 per km²), placing Luna County #2,697 nationally for density and #15 in New Mexico. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the New Mexico median is 6.9. Put another way, there are about 75 acres of land per resident.

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates. Estimates are revised each year and are not decennial census counts. Density divides the whole population by the whole county’s land area, so it describes an average, not how settlement is distributed within the county. Population sources and methods.

Cities and towns in Luna County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Luna County. Together they are home to 16,428 people (64.7%); the other 8,979 (35.3%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Deming city, with 14,944 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Columbus village grew fastest since then (+3.3%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each place inside Luna County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer, for the whole place even where it extends into other counties. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Luna County is a central county of the Deming, NM Micropolitan Statistical Area. Luna County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 2,965.2 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #52 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #478 by population.

ZIP codes

3 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Luna County; 2 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

880298803088034

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Lighter codes have less than half of their land in this county. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Luna County

Luna County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Luna County. The largest neighbor is Sierra County (4,181.2 mi²) and the smallest is Hidalgo County (3,438.6 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Luna County forms a block of 18,354.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 16.2%.

How big is Luna County compared with U.S. states?

Luna County has more land than 2 of the 50 states. It is about 1.5 times the land area of Delaware (1,948.6 mi²), while Connecticut, the next larger state, has 1.6 times as much land (4,842.5 mi²). New Mexico’s county land could hold about 41 areas the size of Luna County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 54.5 miles (87.6 km) on each side. Real county shapes are rarely square, so this is a scale reference rather than a width or driving distance.

State figures are the sums of each state’s county-equivalent land measurements in the same Census release, so states and counties are compared on the same basis. Published state totals can differ slightly because of rounding. Compare all states · Counties bigger than entire states.

What stands out about Luna County?

Luna County has more land than 3,048 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

A median is the middle county-equivalent measurement, not the average of the largest and smallest. All three bars use the same linear scale. Very small areas may appear as a thin sliver; the labels retain their values.

Does including water change its rank?

Using land plus water places Luna County at #189 nationally by total area, 15 places farther from the top than its land rank. Other county equivalents gain more area when their water measurements are included.

Its water share is 0%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.2 percentage points lower. This describes the statistical geography’s land/water mix, not flood exposure or developable land.

Closest positions in the national land ranking

These entries sit immediately beside Luna County in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Calculated from the same Census release as the area table. Total-area order uses original ALAND + AWATER; water shares and chart labels use published square miles. Calculation details.